Enhancement of Oil Spill Response System
by Establishing Oil Database

The objective of this project was to improve the mechanism of effective coordination between international response forces in case of emergency spills of Russian oil in the waters of northern seas, taking into account the prediction of oil behavior in cold environments.

During oil spills, there may be changes in physical and chemical properties of oil that affect the behavior of the oil patch. The expectation is that laboratory data on oil weathering will make it possible to predict the behavior of oil at sea more accurately under various weather conditions and, therefore, to choose the most efficient response measures, for example, mechanical recovery, use of dispersants, etc. Creation of a data bank on laboratory data would optimize the mechanism of interaction between the international response forces in case of trans-regional and cross-border oil spills. Taking into account the expected growth of production and transportation of oil in the Arctic the implementation of these activities would significantly contribute to reduction of the risk of accidents and, therefore, potential threats to the environment and traditional life-sustaining activities in the Arctic.

The following tasks were performed:

Oil weathering studies and database establishment

Study of the dispersants performance with different types of oil

Improvement of interaction pattern between response forces based on the created oil database

Development of recommendations for the application of the database and improvement of the technology of the emergency oil spill response